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Blu-ray Review: Adventure Time Season 3 (2012)

Cartoons have matured quite a bit over the past few couple of decades. I’m not talking just about shows like The Simpsons or South Park, but more so shows for children that can be appreciated by adults too. The shows that we as adults talk about from our childhood are the cartoons that offered something more than what we would classify as content for children. The best of them stuck out for being obscure and bizarre. Shows like Rocko’s Modern Life and Hey Arnold are often reminisced by fellow 20-somethings as being the best shows of our childhood. Adventure Time is doing today for children what those great shows did for children of the ‘90s, and you can now own season 3 of the show on Blu-ray.

One of the most astounding things about the Blu-ray is how good the show actually looks. When I think back to how Adventure Time looks on my TV I can’t help but think it looks perfect, but watching this I can’t imagine it looking this good. The style of the animation is simple, so it makes sense that the transition to Blu-Ray would be easy.

The special features include an alternate introduction to the show that is crafted entirely from Lego. It’s neat, but it’s only something you need to see once and it can be viewed on every episode. Each of the 26 episodes includes a commentary. There is also a short video featuring show creator Pendleton Ward as well as other creative members of the team telling the story of how they transformed Adventure Time from an idea to an actual show. The box itself is sort of a collector’s item, as you can remove the sleeve and glue on some included pieces to make your own BMO.

My only issue with the show really comes to light in season 3. The show has a very “strange” tone to it, and there’s really no other word to define it. There are dark undercurrents and incredibly complex relationships between characters, like in the episode “What am I missing” where Marceline and Princess Bubblegum are implied to have a previous relationship. Season 3 is full of very serious reveals, that when cast against the backdrop of a magical candy kingdom, are sometimes hard to deal with. It isn’t necessarily a flaw with the show, but it is something that can be hard to get over.

Adventure Time season three on Blu-ray is a great package if you are a fan of the show. And if you’re not, you should be. Come on, it’s great.

I started watching this show because I kept hearing about it on the internet. And I was amazed at how dark it gets sometimes. I mean, there’s a lot of silliness but then you’ll get something like The Ice King’s backstory…